LIVE and LOVE like Jesus!“Whoever claims to belong to God must live as Jesus did” -1 John 2:6

When we choose to follow Jesus by accepting Him as Savior and making Him Lord, we make a deliberate decision to LIVE and LOVE like Jesus and we sense God calling us to this as our marching orders, as the way to join Him in His mission.

● When we live and love like Jesus, people come to faith and their lives are renewed, recreated, transformed.

● When we live and love like Jesus, our faith comes alive in our hearts because we begin to experience God’s power at work in us as we learn to fully depend on Him and people begin to notice.

● When we live and love like Jesus, marriages are strengthened and families are healthy and whole because we are surrendered to God and each other.

● When we live and love like Jesus, our workplaces are filled with people who work hard but love deep, who serve not because they are just getting paid but because they are called to something more.

● When we live and love like Jesus, our neighborhoods are welcoming and mutually beneficial because people are not just looking out for their own interests but the interests and well being of others. People come to you instead of coming to Crossroads or one of the pastors.

● When we live and love like Jesus, the needs of vulnerable and hopeless in our community and our world don’t go unnoticed.

● When we live and love like Jesus, orphans are welcomed into loving and safe homes; the homeless, hungry, and hurting are served and strengthened

● When we live and love like Jesus, every person we lock eyes with feels loved and valued because we see them how Jesus does.

● We are prayerfully pursuing the heart of God and His Word on this topic, we will begin the journey as a church of exploring what we're identifying as Spiritual Rhythms. These rhythms are just incredibly practical ways of ordering our lives to allow for God to gently lead us, as we pursue lives of discipleship to Jesus.

● Watch for dates for four teaching nights over the course of the next year, where we will gather to take a deeper dive into these topics together. We will also continue our quarterly Worship Nights!

To LIVE and LOVE like Jesus, we train people to grow and multiply themselves.

Based on what we see in Jesus’ life, what He imparted to his followers who passed them same thing on to others, and what we see God blessing in the global church, we believe this: to live and love like Jesus, we train people to grow and multiply themselves.

How did Jesus do this?

● Jesus saw potential in regular people.

● Jesus gathered them into small groups and invested in them deeply.

● Jesus sent them out to teach others.

● He called people to obedience and sacrifice. (John 15:14, Luke 9:23)

● He saw untapped potential in regular people. (Matthew 4:18-19)

● He invested deeply into the lives of a few. (Mark 14:33)

● He took advantage of the power of groups. (Luke 6:12-13)

● He modeled, then sent people out on a simple, world-changing mission (Luke 10:1-2, Matthew 28:18-20)

To LIVE and LOVE like Jesus, we engage the hopeless and vulnerable by speaking and demonstrating the Good News of Jesus.

When we say hopeless we are referring to those who have little to no access to the Gospel as well as those who have not experienced new life in Christ (1 Peter 1:3–4). These are people around the world and around us.

When we say vulnerable we are referring to those who are susceptible to physical, emotional, or spiritual harm because of circumstances that may be beyond their control, because we are a people who desire to live and love like Jesus.

How did Jesus do this?
● Jesus crossed cultural boundaries and treated people as just that – people!

● Humility—emptying himself (Philippians 2)

● Valued people as image bearers. (John 9:1-12)

● Crossed boundaries (John 4)

● Ran after the one (Matthew 18:12; Luke 15:4)

● Brought people with him--everything he did was in community

● He was not afraid of darkness or baggage (Matthew 9:12)

● Loved with truth (John 7:53-8:11)

What is our response?
● We will mobilize people to engage the hopeless and vulnerable.

● We will provide the pathway, training and environments to get us more deeply connected with the hopeless and vulnerable in our city and around the world.

● We will continue local trip opportunities to get our body connected with local kingdom minded partners.

● We will connect our body to a Child Sponsorship opportunity with our partners at Africa Hope.